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Friday, November 6, 2009

White Christmas

We haven't had a Christmas at home since moving into our house! Two years ago was hubby's family, this last year was my family. This year we are staying home and enjoying all the tradition that comes with it. I recently repainted my living room a bright cream and all my dark furniture and black and white photography is popping against it, which inspired me to add some white to the room... this made me think how beautiful and simple a "White Christmas" decor theme would be this year!

So the search began for cheap (important) easy (more important) and kid friendly (most important) decor. Good old Martha had some great ideas:

2. Stiffened Doily's hung as snowflakes in the window. It reminds me of some stiffened hand crochet doilies my mom had on our tree for years and years.

3. Doily tree star topper but I imagine them, rather than a tree topper (or along with) as ornaments, hung from the ceiling with mono filament, or strung together as a garland! Imagine how gorgeous they would be with a light dusting of iridescent powder?

So, with those three ideas in mind I set out to find materials and price out what this may cost me. I don't crochet or know anyone who does so instead of using stiffened fabric doilies I am going to use paper ones, which makes everything easier as all three projects require the use of paper doilies.Locally, I could only find them at Michaels. I picked up a few packs today to start messing with. A pack of 4" doilies was 1.99 and contains 30. A pack of 6" doilies was 1.99 and contained 20.

Tips for the projects:

1. Martha's wreath suggests using what are known (in this country) as bouquet cuffs. They are shaped like a cone and are meant to have stems inserted into them. The problem is I could not only not find paper ones ANYWHERE in the US, but when I did find them (from a German supplier) they were WAY out of my budget at almost .99c per cuff. As you will see from Martha's post, they claim they used about 100 of them.. wow that's one pricey wreath! SO.. my mind starts turning and I realise that I can make my own paper doily cones quite simply. You simply cut 1/2 of the way into a doily and overlap at the cut, lining up the pattern at the top and tape or glue. At the tip of the cone, snip a space large enough to slip the Christmas light through. EXTRA TIP: For more detailed instructions and photos on how to make such a paper cone, visit the brilliant blog of Zakka Life (here, she uses them to make Doily flower cubes.) I purchased an 18" wire frame for 2.99, and using the prices at Michaels it should cost me about 6.00 in doilies, and a string of lights to make my wreath. All said and done the project should be less than 15.00 total and stored carefully should last for years to come!

2. As I mentioned before I don't have any crochet doilies so I am simply going to use more paper ones, perhaps folding them and snipping away at the centers ala 2st grade, and letting my kids tape them to our front window and front door with some double stick. Super simple and its really nostalgic and vintage feeling to me. I may attempt a curtain of them as well, by using a tension curtain hanger and stringing some on mono filament, but only if my kids agree not to yank it down 10 times a day (not likely.)

3. I may stagger some of the stars on garlands like these, also by Martha. I think these can be used sparingly to create a great effect and stored properly should last for years to come as well!

My best friend is flying here in ONE WEEK (cant wait!) and staying until the 15th of December which gives us plenty of time to work on these great crafts. I will post pictures of our progress and any new ideas I stumble on in the meantime, I cant wait to see how it all turns out.

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About Me

Hi everyone, I'm Kristin and I am a craft-aholic. I dabble in all of it, except knitting and crochet.. I leave that to the professionals (aka, I am no good at it. aka, I suck.)
I sew, make purses, do button work, spend hours making little felt creations, and almost always have a needle in my hand and a baby in the other.. no the two dont mix well.
I am a stay at home (work at home!) mom of two amazingly wonderful kids, and I love love life! We enjoy being together and I wake up every day knowing how lucky we truly are to have eachother :)